


Laid Up

by SegaBarrett



Category: Breaking Bad
Genre: M/M, Season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-23
Updated: 2013-09-23
Packaged: 2017-12-27 09:40:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/977271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Walt helps Jesse while he's in the hospital, during "One Minute".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laid Up

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Breaking Bad, and I make no money from this.
> 
> A/N: Written for kink bingo square, "watersports".

Walt must have memorized every inch of Jesse’s face, every bruise that he was responsible for, even as he tried so hard to push it out of his mind. The phone call he’d gotten Saul to make had saved them from ending up in prison, but it had landed Jesse in a hospital bed.

This was the second time. The same hospital. Maybe even the same room, Walt couldn’t remember. Except this time instead of drifting through painkiller-induced sleep, Jesse was wide awake and, as far as Walt could see, still running off the fumes of the vitriol he’d unleashed on Walt hours before.

Not that Walt didn’t deserve it, and not that Walt wasn’t the one usually saying far, far worse things to Jesse.

Walt laid out his plan. His offer, that he’d replace Gale with Jesse. Even though Gale was so much better trained, even if Gale should have been the perfect assistant. Even if Jesse didn’t want to be an assistant, but a partner, regardless of whether he had the training to be or not. Gale had degrees and know-how and ability but… Jesse had… Jesse had… 

Walt couldn’t put his finger on what Jesse had.

He couldn’t find the right words to convince him until he admitted that Jesse’s meth was as good as his. Now, that wasn’t technically true, Jesse wasn’t the expert that Walt was. But whatever, Walt could fudge the truth a little to make things easier. To make Jesse feel better. Maybe that one sentence could make him feel less lost.

Jesse had taken a long time to agree, but at last the words were out of his mouth; partners, 50-50, and a look went across his face like surrender. He seemed to want Walt to go, to leave him alone. 

Walt wouldn’t do that. He sat by Jesse’s bedside still.

They had a staring contest. Jesse looked everywhere around the hospital room, seeming to look for anywhere to place his eyes that wasn’t around Walt. But again Walt didn’t give him that reprieve; he kept his eyes locked on him. Jesse would have to know. Jesse would have to understand.

Finally Jesse spoke up, angrily, “Mr. White. Get out of here! I need to piss, okay?”

Walt rolled his eyes. 

“Then go ahead and go. I’m not stopping you.” Jesse glared back again and rocked slightly in his bed, trying to get one foot on the ground. Walt almost laughed when he saw the look of frustration cross over Jesse’s visible eye, then stretch across all his features. He was far too easy to read. “Need some help?” It was hard for Walt to keep the mirth out of his voice, but he managed. 

“No,” Jesse protested, but when he tried to lean forward again, he toppled out of the bed and landed hard on the floor. Now Walt didn’t think it was funny anymore. He ran to Jesse’s side and gripped one arm, slowly pulling him to his feet.

“Jesse,” he whispered, holding him up, not sure he could stand on his own. “I’ll bring you. Let’s go. Walk slow okay?”

Jesse nodded. The fight had gone out of him, and he hung limply on Walt’s arm as his former teacher led him across the floor. Walt looked around, trying to figure out if they’d given Jesse a private bathroom or not, but ultimately discovered they’d saddled him with one down the hall. Hopefully he could make it. These hospitals were ridiculous. How the hell did they expect Jesse to get there on his own, or did they just not care and figured the nurses would mop it up later?

Jesse’s leg slumped behind them. Walt tried not to think of his own son and the way he drug his crutches, because that just made everything far too weird. What he felt for Jesse went above and beyond paternal, but what exactly it was… well, that was a mystery. Right now there were more important things than analyzing their bond, however, such as hoping that Jesse didn’t pee all over him. That would be a hell of a thing to try and explain to Skyler. 

“You can do it, Jesse,” Walt encouraged, “It’s right down here.” He used one arm and his foot to hold the door open while Jesse shuffled inside, looking around with a dazed expression on his face. Walt hoped again that he’d make it, but this time he added another reason: he wasn’t sure that Jesse could take any more humiliation right now without utterly dissolving, floating down some drain and ceasing to exist.

They got into the main bathroom all right, and all that was left was the stall. Walt grabbed a door and held it open, and Jesse stepped inside, not standing far enough in that Walt could close the door on him without clipping him.

“Jesse,” Walt began, “Do you need…”

“I don’t need you to hold my dick,” Jesse shot back with a glare. “But I…” He wobbled. “Hold me up?” There was a clear humility behind the request, and Walt was surprised to feel a chill of triumph at it. He didn’t like that feeling, not at all. He wasn’t the bad guy and he shouldn’t be satisfied that Jesse needed him for such a simple thing as this. That couldn’t be right.  
Walt offered his shoulder, and Jesse gripped a hold of it, using his other hand to unzip his fly as he wobbled on his feet again, leaving the older man wondering if this was even going to work. Jesse might very well lose his footing and fall down on his ass again, or fall into Walt… 

_I’ll catch him, though,_ Walt vowed in his head, and that was yet another thought he didn’t understand.

Jesse managed to get his fly open and his boxers down before using the hand that wasn’t clinging to Walt for dear life to aim and shoot. Jesse’s eyes looked everywhere except for at Walt, like he didn’t want to believe this. 

He was done quickly before he shoved his equipment back in his pants and zipped up.

“Sink and then back to the room?” Walt suggested. Jesse gave him a lazy glare.

“We’re partners,” Jesse repeated softly.

“Okay, so I won’t order you around. But do you have a better suggestion?”

Jesse just shook his head, the stubbornness fading in the humiliation that was clear as day on his face.

“Sink and then back to the room.” He looked down.

Maybe this partnership would work out just fine.


End file.
